The Workers in the Vineyard

“For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”—Matthew 7:8

I love the parables in the Bible, the Sufi stories, and all the metaphysical teaching stories Wise and Holy Ones have shared with us through the ages.

Sometimes they make me tear my hair out, however. The one in the Bible about the workers in the vineyard bugged me for years. This is the story about a man who hires laborers early in the morning to work in his vineyard. He agrees to pay them each one denarius. Later in the day, he hires additional workers and pays them one denarius also. Then, in the evening, when the day’s work is almost done, he hires some more workers. And—you guessed it—he pays them one denarius. I just didn’t get it. It just wasn’t fair that some people only had to work an hour to make the same money that the others worked all day to make. What was this about?

Sort of like the story of the prodigal son, too, whose father killed the fatted calf in celebration of his return home, when the dutiful son who stayed and worked with his father the whole time never got such a celebration. Poor guy. Where’s his party? What’s the message here?

To confess to you truthfully: It is only now, as I write this page for the third time, that the door to understanding slowly creaks open, and light begins to pour through the crack. When I began, I thought this story was about money and fair wages. But here is the truth this story holds for me now: No one is better than anyone else. Begrudge no one their denarius or fatted calf. Begrudge no one God’s mercy or forgiveness. Celebrate the return of every prodigal one. Rejoice that everyone has a denarius to spend. Welcome everyone to wealth, spiritually and physically, early or late. Who knows? The latecomer—the prodigal one—may be you.

Today’s Affirmation: “I rejoice in God’s glorious bounty, in which we all share.”

Church in Santorini

Today’s guest blogger is a dear friend, Beca Lewis, coach and author extraordinaire. I read this article in her newsletter and asked if I could share it with you. Enjoy!

Back From The Future Into The Now

It happened again last week. I got up one morning and my computer had reset its time clock to 2099.

Everything on my computer was blinking in alarm because all my software programs, and protective services, were completely out of date. To the computer the last time they had been updated was 2011 – 88 years earlier!

However, obviously there wasn’t anything really wrong. It wasn’t 2099. The alarms occurred based on a false reading. No matter what the computer said, or thought was true, it was still 2011. Since this had happened before I knew what to do, I simply reset the clock back to now.

So often, our personal lives are set in future-time.

Instead of being present now, our thoughts are in tomorrow, or a year from now, or when the house is bought or sold, the kids grow up, our parents pass away, when the job is gone; the list is endless isn’t it?

With our lives set in future-time, alarms go off, or in our case, fear goes off, entangling our thinking in its web, and bringing future fears into the present and making them appear real.

As a result, we are less and less likely to pause and observe our beliefs in order to relinquish any that do not match the universal Truth of Love’s constant provision.

Instead we are inclined to rush around trying to fix or understand a situation that only exists because we chose to advance into the future rather than stay in the present awareness of provision now.

This rushing around, whether it is physically or mentally, compounds the problem.

If we are successful at “fixing” the situation – like earning enough money to be current on the rent, or appease an unhappy relationship issue – we may think that the problem is over, when it is simply dismissed for the moment.

It is waiting the next time we future-project and let fear in the door.

If we are not successful at “fixing” the situation, then guilt, anger, or depression might set in because we don’t know what to do and we feel helpless. This increases the fear because of our perceived inability to make things right.

How I fixed the computer, is exactly what we can do when we find ourselves future projecting and feeling fear.

We can reset ourselves back to now. The question is how to reset – and to what “now”.

The now we want to come back to is the present awareness of the constant provision that is always taking place. We find that now of constant provision by calming down and moving our awareness into the consciousness of the present.

Notice your breath, notice the movement of the wind, the radiance of the sun, the comfort of the clouds. Listen to the birds, notice that they are always in the now, and are constantly aware of their provision.

These symbols of constant provision only hint at the overflowing abundance that is present for us, and as us, in every moment – and we access it by slowing down and feeling its presence.

Many years ago in a moment of complete panic as I future projected how our family would be able to live with no money; I stood under a tree and actually looked at it. I noticed how many leaves it had, its presence, and stability.

I noticed the giving and receiving that it lived as, and in that present moment realized that all provision for all of divine Mind’s ideas – and that meant my family too – was always available.

I still go back to a tree when I find myself out of the moment and into false human fears projecting itself as my thinking.

Resetting ourselves back to current time takes practice. We are in the habit of not being present, of being too busy, of listening to projected fears and taking sides.

This practice will remind us that fear has no more power to do anything than the computer when it is not turned on.

Instead of the habit of future projecting, we can learn and practice the habit of recognizing that no provision has ever reached us without it first being a quality of divine Love. As we ponder this idea, we can see that this is the way to reset ourselves back to the idea of just One, present now and always giving.

Let the consciousness of constant provision guide you as to what action to take. Follow the still quiet voice that leads away from the projected future and back to the solid foundation of now.

This will take care of what we perceive as the future in glorious ways we cannot yet imagine, and will only be able to see as we reset ourselves back to consciousness and awareness of the constant, eternal, unlimited Principle of provision provided by divine Love, to everyone unconditionally and at all times.

As an author, coach, and speaker, Beca Lewis is dedicated to bringing Universal Spiritual Principles and Laws into clear focus. She has been teaching how to do this in her system called The Shift® for over 35 years. More about this system can be found at The Shift.com. She is the author of numerous Ecourses, articles, and books including A Woman’s ABC’s of Life: Lessons in Love, Life and Career from Those Who Learned The Hard Way. Her book Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception outlines her complete system of The Shift®. Her latest book is called: The Four Essential Questions: For Choosing Spiritually Healthy Habits.

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